Education Conference

Colleagues will share their experience or ideas of educational practices that prioritise both staff and student wellbeing and that foster a culture of empathy and support. Wellbeing is a growing concern for both staff and students. The number of students reporting mental health issues is more than 7 times higher* than it was a decade ago, while as many as 50% of university staff** may experience poor mental health. Within this context, it is critical that we discover and embed new ways of working which support staff and students from across the educational community to flourish at King’s. Content proposals to this category may focus on compassionate pedagogies that look to support the mental, emotional flourishing of students alongside their academic success. They may be focus on work to create an educational environment which sets staff and students up for success. They may focus on the wellbeing needs of members of our community, both students and staff across all roads, and how these can be supported with care and compassion.

Colleagues will share how they are responding to the needs, challenges or opportunities they identify as important to future developments. These may be in education for sustainability, digital futures, internationalisation, but you are not limited to those. Colleagues could set out the circumstances they anticipate, and what these imply for pedagogy, educational policy and/or learning environments. How should we respond to these developments and possibilities? Or what plans and projects are already underway?

Higher education needs to recognise and address circumstances that differentially disadvantage students for reasons outside their control. Colleagues will prompt and contribute to conversations about creating equitable and accessible learning environments, as we explore strategies and practices that celebrate diversity, accommodate varying needs, and enable the full participation of all students.

Colleagues will reflect on opportunities – potential or existing – for our student community to shape their own educational journeys, and to propose ways in which we can foster meaningful partnerships, amplify student voices, increase student agency, and enhance their learning experience through collaborative engagement and co-creation.

Colleagues will present curriculum design projects or curriculum research which addresses one of the themes listed below. Please note, Content proposals for Depict are being accepted as Research/ Scholarship presentations [30-minute slot] only. ¬ What new skills, competencies or core knowledge have you embedded into your curriculum to better equip graduates facing uncertain futures? How did you go about identifying these learning outcomes and developing student learning towards these within your programmes of study? ¬ Has your work contributed to curriculum development beyond King’s, e.g. engagement with professional organizations or research associations and their curricular requirements or guidelines / subject benchmark statements? ¬ Applications of human-centred design to curriculum design within your discipline. ¬ Research projects into higher education skills development and links to labour markets or industry needs within your field. ¬ Research or scholarship on the social impact of higher education curricula. This could be within your subject discipline or more broadly.

Posters will be on open display throughout the day in the Great Hall, which is the day’s central hub. This is a fantastic opportunity to engage in informal 1-1 or small-group discussions rather than being a formal presenting timeslot. Posters do not have to be complete at the time of submitting. It will be presenters’ responsibility to print and bring their poster to the conference - this includes any costs associated with printing. The poster boards are designed to display up to A1 for portrait posters and A2 for landscape posters, which are the sizes we recommend printing to. Printing can be arranged via KCL IT; the poster request process can be found on Remedy self-service under ‘A0 print request’ (where you can request an A1 or A2 printout). King's Academy will provide push pins for display, but you are welcome to bring your own. Please note, all posters must be collected by 16.00 by presenters - these will not be collected and stored by King's Academy.

Registration for the Education Conference was open from early March until the end of May and places were extended via an Outlook calendar invite on a first-come first-served basis in-line with venue capacity. If you have not received a calendar invite for the day, your registration has been automatically added to our waiting list. As of 1 June 2025, the waiting list for this event stands at 70 colleagues. If you would like to find out where you are on the waiting list, please email kings-academy@kcl.ac.uk

You can cancel your place by declining the calendar invite for the day. Places for this event are extremely limited and we are grateful when colleagues inform us in advance that they can no longer attend, as this enables us to extend places to colleagues on the waiting list.

Please email kings-academy@kcl.ac.uk